House Speaker John Boehner walked to the edge of the abyss and then backed away -- as a result, the fiscal cliff is no longer a threat to the economy.

The House voted 257-167 Tuesday night to pass a Senate-passed compromise to reverse most of the tax increases that went into effect on New Year's Day. These tax increases were part of the so-called fiscal cliff, along with deep cuts in federal spending that were scheduled to go into effect today. The legislation passed by Congress puts off these across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, for two months.

House Republicans didn't like the fiscal cliff compromise crafted by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. This bill, which passed the Senate early Tuesday morning by an 89-9 margin, not only allowed tax rates to increase for households with more than $450,000 in income, it also failed to cut federal spending. Boehner considered letting the House vote on an amendment to add billions of dollars in spending cuts to the Biden-McConnell compromise, but then backed off on that threat. Such an amendment likely would have killed the fiscal cliff deal.

Most Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, voted against the fiscal cliff deal. Boehner and 84 other Republicans voted for it, along with 172 Democrats.

Business groups were relieved that Congress protected most Americans from higher income taxes, although payroll taxes will go back up to what they were two years ago.

“With the economy still recovering, taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of consumers’ hands was a risk we could not afford to take," said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation.

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